Every Superhero and Comic Book Movie in Chronological Order

Here at Flights, Tights, and Movie Nights, my goal is to seek out and watch every superhero and comic book based movie out there, this is my attempt at creating a comprehensive list of every single one I can find as well as the ones coming out in the near future. Aside from the traditional theatrical releases, I’m also including: Straight-to-Video releases including low budget knock-off films, TV movies including feature-length stand alone pilots, foreign films & anime movies. I’m currently excluding: movie serials, TV series, short films, anime OVAs, and documentaries created as home video bonus content. I’m also excluding fan films, though I have featured many on this site alongside interviews with the creators in my Superhero Shorts series. Links go to my review of the movie here on this site, and I welcome comments, suggestions, and any movies that I may have missed.

The hero wears a costume and/or has a hero identity that is separate from his regular identity. Ex. Batman/Bruce Wayne

The film takes place in the modern day or the near future. Ex. Judge Dredd

The hero and/or villain are very theatrical in their heroics and/or crimes.

Key:
none – Theatrical release
H – Home video release
A – Animated
TV – Made-for-TV movie
U – Unreleased titles
[Country] – Foreign titles
doc – Documentary
C – based on a non-superhero comic book
S – an original superhero story not based on a comic book
CC – based around comic book culture in the “real” world

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If you need a replacement at any point, you could do a lot worse than Green Lantern: First Flight. The animated flick from 2011. It starts off similar to the live action version with the origin story, but I think it’s actually a lot better

I have actually seen that one, but not Emerald Knights yet. Really enjoyed First Flight. The Warner Premier DC animated movies have all been pretty great and they are top on my list for any subs or after I finish these. There’s just so many of them it’s hard to narrow them down.

If you want to throw in another comedy you can’t go wrong with Orgazmo. A porn star superhero…definitely nothing else like it! Created by Trey Parker and Matt Stone, the South Park guys. Wildly inappropriate, but it’s impossible to not laugh out loud!

I remember wanting to watch that when it first came out but never got around to it. Definitely a unique addition to the list, but I think it pretty much fits all the criteria I have for this first year. Thanks for the suggestion.

Hey Bubbawheat, I turned up another you might want to check out. I haven’t seen it, just happened to stumble upon it on IMDb. 1983 film, The Return of Captain Invincible. (And I checked, there’s no “Captain Invincible” movie prior.) http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0086189/

Not sure how up your alley this’ll be (I might check it out myself come November, since it seems to be super-obscure — 12 IMDb votes!) but I just came across one called Super Hero Party Clown. It’s available on Hulu, so you’ll be able to check it out without having to put any money down. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1663675/

Found another obscure one for you (I’m trudging through years at IMDb finding stuff I’ve seen but haven’t ranked, or should add to my watchlist; I figure along the way I might as well toss a few things your way). Griff the Invisible; http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1509803/

I’ve actually seen that for sale at Target, surprised I forgot to add it to the list. It’s an Australian movie along the lines of Special and Defendor I believe, though I heard it’s pretty slow, without much going on. Appreciate the tips!

They actually have a not bad, but also fairly random selection of smaller and independent flicks. They also have Cashback there, which has a really interesting cover, and I’ve read a couple reviews that has made me want to watch it, but I’ve still never gotten around to it.

I’m for ’em! I’ve got several Japanese films on my list, and planned on watching the Bollywood films Krrsh and it’s sequels/prequels, and the 1969 Mr. Freedom is a French film. Now I just need to re-update this list again.

Might hold off on that just for a bit — I’m about to finish up my trawl of IMDb, and I’ve got a slew of ’em to send your way. (Considering I wasn’t setting out to find any of this stuff in particular, it’s kind of surprising… I guess the spate of superhero blockbusters has spawned a large following on the indy circuit as well.)

You wouldn’t be able to tell the animated from the live action, would you? Like color code or something? This is an exceptional list but I have to take the title+year from here and then go look them up on other sites to find out what they are. Even just knowing live/animated would help a lot.

Good idea, I had been considering doing something like that, but I went ahead and labelled all the animated ones with a “- A” at the end. Eventually they will all link to reviews on this site if you want to know more about them, but I still have to watch and review them all. Thanks for stopping by!

176 movies seen on this list starting with Supes from 78′, and there are so many I have yet to see. Haven’t realized there are so many superhero movies. There are some I have never even heard of before this day. And I search for such movies on a weekly bases.

Greetings! I looked up this page because I wanted to watch a super hero themed movie as I have been binging on super hero movies lately and I wanted to see a list to refer to. I’m happy for seeing titles of movies I haven’t seen (even though as a bit of a movie buff I’m slightly ashamed as to having not seen them yet) and I’m looking forward to rewatching some movies I had forgotten. Two titles stuck out in mind for adding to your super hero movie list: The Phantom 1996 with Billy Zane and Orgazmo 1997 with Trey Parker and Matt Stone. Thanks for your write up. Cheers!

I do have them on my list already and hope to get around to them soon. Thanks for stopping by! As for not having seen all of them, there are quite a few obscure and lesser known movies alongside the more well known ones so don’t feel too bad for not having seen them all!

This is quite a list. I’ve probably seen half of them myself, mostly the newer and more popular ones. Think I’ll bookmark this page and maybe start watching the ones I haven’t seen from the beginning. Would be nice to say that we’ve seen most if not all of every superhero/comic book movie. Although right now I’m watching all the Disney/Pixar movies in order, so this quest will have to wait until afterwards. ^^

At the rate that I’m watching them and how many more are coming out each month, it’ll probably be at least two years if not more before I can claim to have seen them all. It’s been a fun project so far though. The Disney/Pixar movies are a great project too and there’s a few of those I haven’t caught yet, good luck on both fronts and thanks for stopping by!

Awesome list! I’ve been looking for a list like this for a while i’m glad I found it!!! I’ve seen 205 by my count. But my personal collection is at 347 so I have a lot of movies I can add to your list! I’ll post them 10 at a time!!!

Yeah, I include comic book adaptations, I just did a very brief check and didn’t see anything on Yor, and the one thing I glanced at for Tex said that it was based on a comic strip, not a comic book. And I exclude the comic strips or else I would also want to include the Addams Family, Garfield, Peanuts and the like. I’ll look more into it though.

Yor and tex are both based on comics. Are you looking for just superhero movies or movies based on comics as well? Yor the Hunter is based on a comic called henga Google henga comic in Google images as well tex to see comic covers

Doctor Mordrid – 1992… ok this one maybe a bit of a stretch without the story behind it, may still be a stretch with the story but it is part of my collection.
*from Wikipedia* : It was produced by Charles Band and co-directed by Band and his father, Albert Band. It was written by C. Courtney Joyner and released by Full Moon Features.
The younger Band held an option for an adaptation of the Marvel Comics character Doctor Strange, but the option expired before production could begin.[1] Instead of scrapping the project, the script was rewritten to include original characters not directly adapted from the comics property.[1] The main character originally was to be called “Doctor Mortalis”. Some early concept art was done by Jack Kirby.

Dollman (1991)
Dollman vs. Demonic Toys (1993)
*A Dollman comic book was published by Eternity Comics
Ben 10: Race Against Time (2007)
Ben 10: Alien Swarm (2009)
*note these are the made for TV live action movies.
Sgt. Kabukiman (1991)
*note I may have missed this one on your page but I didnt see it on the by date but I just read your citizen toxie review so I know you know this character.

Yeah id say its a superhero film. They even parody the I’m Batman scene with im kabukiman… As well Wikipedia has it listed as a superhero movie. And you should read the production tab on the wiki, about how the movie came about. The story is better then the movie.

Supersonic man (1979)-Spanish/Italian
*note this movie is so bad its good look up the trailer on youtube

Mirageman (2007)-Chile

*rest of this group should all be from the USA*
Monarch of the moon (2006)
The Dead one (2007)
* both of these dvds come with a mini comic. Monarch is an original story but dead one is based on El Muerto: The Aztec Zombie comic book.

Superguy (2000)
*note I thought I saw this on your list but I cant find it now. Its a mockumentary

I’ve considered it, but he doesn’t fit enough of my criteria, similarly to Conan. He originated in novels, it’s set in the past, not the modern age or near future, and he doesn’t have any super powers. There may be come comics out there, but his start was in novels. I should be doing an update pass here today hopefully.

it’s interesting how similar and how different our collections are for example I have no cartoons in my collection. But I have both Zorro and John Carter in my collection which were both novels. I as well do not think of conan a comic hero Slash and or superhero and those movies are not part of my collection

I meant to review John Carter under my “Almost Super” tag when I watched it, but never got around to it. Also, when I updated the list this time around I also updated the intro paragraph with the specific criteria I try to look at when deciding whether or not to include something in this list.

Toku-heros & Henshin Heros… ok so you can get really lost in the henshin hero sub category of super hero movies… As in I could add 40 some movies and you may not know where to start. So I will just Add some must haves and if you really like it I will add more

any thoughts on a Green Arrow movie?…I mean if Flash is up there, and in Flash and Arrow keep alluding to more JLA characters being introduced, do you think JLA part 1 is where they’re leading up to on TV?

I saw that there as well, but it looked a bit too much Victorian era. I decided that unless there’s super powers & other typical superhero trappings, I don’t count masked heroes pre-1900 as “superheroes”, which includes Zorro.

I picked it up I’ll keep you posted if there is any super powers in the movie but I don’t think it will go there. Also Antboy 2: Revenge of the Red Fury dvds are in red box machines.
Also picked up “black lighting” it seems like Chitty Chitty Bang Bang meets iron man. I wasn’t sure if I would have called it a superhero movie but the wiki page says superhero several times so we’ll see

I’m trying to remember a 90s superhero-ish movie. Maybe someone can help.
It’s set in the 30s or 40s. The backgrounds were always dark and foggy and most of the bad guys worked for the real bad guy.
They also had facial prosthetics to accentuate their features. Very similar to what you would see in comic books.
Thanks for any help.

The first thing that comes to mind is 1990’s Dick Tracy, though it was set closer to the 20’s and there were a lot of bright costumes. Everyone did wear prosthetics though. Another possibility would be Mystery Men, or the Guyver though the Guyver was full creature make up, not just facial prosthetics.

In general, I purposely exclude pilot movies for various reasons. Most I just consider double-length pilot episodes of TV, some are too short like Power Pack’s 30 min runtime. In general, I include them if they are: feature length (over 60 mins), did not go to series (Dr. Strange), or were repackaged/edited as a home video movie (Blade: House of Cthon)

They were made into comic books, but Star Wars came out just a month before the movie and was based on the movie, not the other way around. Also Star Trek’s comic came out after the TV series. I only include movies where the comic came first with just a few exceptions.

I think Jupiter Ascending is too much sci-fi and Lucy is more sci-fi action though it’s a close one. Bananaman was supposed to come out last year and there’s been nothing but a website for over a year so it sounds like it could be dead in the water. I will add Bloodshot & Power Rangers the next time I update this list.

Can I ask u something please ,in one newspaper I read that expandable 3 is a superhero movie because of its stunt in it,but I don’t think it is a superhero movie.can u answer me that it is a superhero movie or not please.

Articles often try to throw the term “superhero movie” around since they’re popular lately. I haven’t seen the latter 2, but the Expendables is just a straight up action movie. They may be able to do some crazy things, but that’s not enough to call them superheroes. Same with the later Fast and the Furious movies.

cool page! im serching for such kind of movies since i was a child. you have broad a lot of them together. but I still missing some in your list what about the Old shadow movies first was 1933 if I am right. I also miss Nightman and the Cape.
gretings from germany!

Welcome! I’m always looking to add movies to the list. I thought the old Shadow movies were just serials, but apparently there’s a bunch. I’ve heard of Nightman but keep forgetting to add it, but the Cape was just a TV show as far as i know.

I don´t think so Cape must be relatet to marvel somehow -about the Circus that picked him up- one time the call them self “circus of crime” thre is a groop at marvel comics that called so too. if i have seen all epis.I can say more. at the moment is just suspicion.

I specifically left them out, I agree that they were a stepping stone to modern superheroes, but there are enough differences that I don’t quite consider them superheroes. I did watch the modern Zorro movie recently and plan to watch at least a couple more before writing about Zorro as a whole with more specific thoughts on the subject. Thanks for your comment, I appreciate it!

Scarlet Pimpernel did not wear a costume. I swear I think allot of people never read it but just watched that Daffy Duck cartoon, which was a as much a Zorro pastiche, and think the Pimpernel must have wore a costume too? When he wore disguises – a gypsy – old lady – soldier etc- There was no identifiable masked Pimpernel persona like there is Zorro and later Superheroes Superman, Batman, etc.

That said as per the authors criteria, and other choices; Zorro should be on this list, definitely a bizarre bias there.

Zashchitniki 2017 aka Guardians (in UK and US) Russia’s version of the Avengers including a bear with a machine gun. My friend sent me a link to the trailer it looks pretty good so far. It may get a US English dubbed release… maybe?

The list has missed an indian tamil movie released on 2012 mugamoodi. The movie is much better than the indian movies listed here with lot more realistic stunts and effects. But, strongly inspired from christopher nolan’s dark knight rises(2008)…

Thanks, I hadn’t heard about Abattoir yet, will definitely check that one out. I did watch & review Sinister Squad, but thought it was more fantasy/horror and not enough superhero so it didn’t make the list. I didn’t know enough about Ninjago, but thought it was like ninja superheroes. I will keep an eye on it and take it off the list if I think it doesn’t fit.

I just checked Wikipedia (I know, I’m lazy; it’s a failing) and according to them only 3 superhero movies have been made in Russia. I just can’t believe that’s true. I know they got a little behind during the Cold War, but supposedly the first Russian superhero movie came out in 2009! Can’t be true. I’d love to know what you might add to that list. I’d vouch for “August Eighth” even though the superhero is imaginary. But there has got to be more than three!

Bubba wheat I have a pretty big update for you I found three movies missing from your list

* Alien Arsenal 1999 made-for-tv movie (It’s by full moon entertainment it’s pretty low budget its name and DVD cover do not make it seem like a superhero movie but two teenage kids find alien battle suits they mostly just use it to scare the bullies straight but they do stop a heist and they talk about being superheroes)

* Allegiance of Powers (2016) low budget I haven’t seen it yet but its a post apocalypse superhero movie

* They call me Jeeg (2015 Italy 2017 US)

I think this one is great one of the best foreign superheroes films I’ve seen in awhile it’s on Netflix right now

Bubba I’ve got two movies for your list first is iboy a Netflix movie based on a book of the same name and second is a movie called Armstrong AKA iron arm in some areas. As well i’d like to help support you some how some way. I do own over 350 superhero movie dvds. If you’re not a collector and you just want to watch the movies I can rip and burn some DVRs for you. I’ve been trying to think of ways to share my collection and knowledge of superhero movies with others. I’ve started a letterboxd profile to Chronicle my collection also thinking of doing my own blog or vlog (maybe youtube) any suggestions?

Where are you in 2018 I’m eagerly waiting for u.Now u have come so I have to ask u that from where I can download ‘surge of power revenge of the sequel’ movie.And henchmen released in 2018 and I had watched it , it is available on the internet.

I’m almost done catching up with 2017 releases, then I’ll start working on more 2018 ones. I hadn’t seen anything about Henchmen being officially released by the studio yet, but it may have leaked. I saw Surge through an official screener copy but you can check the official site surgeofpower.org for more info.

I have some movies for u that u can add in your 2018 list.They are:-avengers of justice: farce wars,Scooby Doo and Batman brave and the bold,aadamkhor,Lego black panther trouble in wakanda,avengers Grimm time wars,Bhavesh Joshi superhero,marvel rising secret warriors,the darkest minds,the late batsby,freedom fighters the ray and henchman (absolutely released in 2018 u can see trailer on YouTube).

While Zorro does have a secret identity, I feel like that’s really the only connection to superheroes he has and is more of a masked vigilante. A subtle difference and I wouldn’t argue too hard if someone else calls him a superhero, but I don’t.